Consumer Electronics Winners and Losers

Tablets were the brightest spot in sales for the U.S. 2012 holiday season

Before the 2012 make-or-break U.S. holiday buying season (which this year ran from 23 November to 24 December), the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) estimated that spending on consumer electronics would increase a few percentage points. Unfortunately for manufacturers and retailers, an analysis released in January by the CEA showed that actual spending was flat. But that overall figure conceals that some categories are booming while others are in decline.